






■^''jj wiiun Cii". 



THE 




ANNUAL ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Maryland Historical Society, 



On the Evening of December 17tli, 1866, 



By Hon. WILLIAM F. GILES 




' k 




BALTIMORE: 

Printed by J o hn M u r p h y & C o. 

182 Baltimore Street. 
18 67. 



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THE 



ANNUAL ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Maryland Historical Society, 



On the Evening of December 17tli, 1866, 



By Hon. WILLIAM F. GILES, 




BALTIMORE: 

Printed by John Murphy & Co. 

182 Baltimore Street. 
1 86T. 






-^ b^ 



1h& Society 



^■ 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 

To live in the memory of those who shall survive us, 
is not to die. To be remembered when we are gone, 
has been an animating motive with the men of every 
day and of every generation. This sentiment has mani- 
fested itself in a thousand ways. It is seen in the 
countless efforts that man has made to blunt the iron 
tooth of time, and save from oblivion his name and 
the record of his life. It speaks to us from the mag- 
nificent cemeteries of earths mightiest cities, as from 
the secluded country grave-yard where " the rude fore- 
fathers of the hamlet sleep." It appears in all that 
our race has done throughout its long history, to link 
and bind the perishing scenes of earth, to an immor- 
tality wdiich belongs alone to the deathless spirit. From 
the pyramids and catacombs of Egypt's earliest civili- 
zation ; from the hieroglyphics which cover the long 
resting places of her embalmed dead ; from the sculp- 
tured monuments and statues of Grecian and Roman 
art ; from all that man has done in the olden time, to 
perpetuate his name and the memory of his life with 
those who should survive him, how clear and full to us 
is the evidence of the presence of this all pervading 
sentiment and yearning of the human heart. This 
voice, which comes to us so clear and unbroken from 
the dead past, is re-echoed by the living present. Else 
why so many journals ; so many auto-biographies ; so 
many efforts that we make to link our names to some- 
thing of earth that seems more enduring and abiding 
than ourselves ? It seems therefore to be an ever pre- 
sent desire in the human breast, that " although our 

3 



bodies moulder, we would have our memories live" — 
placed there, no doubt, by the wisdom "and goodness of 
our Creator, that it might ever be to man an incentive 
to a life of active benevolence and noble action. That, 
as he was seeking to place his life and his character 
before the judgment of posterity, he should adorn them 
with those unselfish and noble actions which alone 
could assure to him the approval of that distant and 
therefore impartial tribunal. We can thus perceive, 
that this motive could' not but act most beneficially in 
forming the characters and shaping the lives of men. 
And what has it not enabled him to accomplish and 
endure in all the ages that are past ? To escape the 
common fate, "i^o die and he forgoUon,''^ genius and 
learning are ever putting forth their mighty energies. 
The ambitious heart in every age, yearning for immor- 
tality, has foregone all the enjoyments of the present. 
It is therefore alike due to noble and unselfish action, 
as to our own sense of gratitude, and the yearnings of 
our own hearts, that the men of every day should 
preserve and transmit to posterity, the materials for 
true and impartial history. That they should preserve 
the fleeting records of the lives of great and good men 
who have been an honor to our race ; and the light and 
joy of the nation which Avas blessed by their* presence. 
This duty has been but imperfectly discharged in the 
ages that are past. And as a consequence of this 
failure, how much of the material for history and biog- 
raphy has been swej^t away by the stream of time. 
How much has been destroyed by the wars which have 
desolated our earth, or has mouldered away and been 
lost and forgotten. During that long night which 
shrouded Europe, from the passing away of the Roman 
Empire to the dawn of modern civilization, how many 
(we know not) of the manuscripts and records of that 



remarkable people were trodden beneath the foot of 
Rome's Barbarian conquerors ? 

The library of Ptolemy Philadelphus, at Alexandria, 
contained, according to Gellius, 100,000 volumes, all in 
rolls. This was burnt by Caesar's soldiers. Constan- 
tine and his successors established a magnificent library 
at Constantinople, which in the eighth century was said 
to contain 300,000 volumes. They were destroyed by 
the order of Leo Isaurus. In the latter part of the 
fourth century, the library at Alexandria was again 
destroyed. And we have marvellous accounts of the 
extent and value of the last Alexandrian Library, 
destroyed by the Saracen conqueror Amrou, in the 
seventh century. When we remember that this all 
took place before the invention of printing, and that 
of the many thousand volumes destroyed in these 
libraries, there were but few if any duplicate copies in 
the world, we can form a faint estimate of the loss that 
history, science and art sustained by the destruction of 
these valuable depositories of the learning of the age. 
Archbishop Spalding of our city, in a lecture on the 
origin and history of libraries, says, " that it is a fact 
no less undoubted than it is lamentable, that the great 
body of ancient books has been lost. That we are not 
perhaps at this day in possession of one-tenth part of 
the standard works which were once classical in Greece 
and Rome. That of one hundred and forty books 
which it is known that Livy wrote, only thirty-five 
now remain. Varro, the most learned of the ancient 
Romans, is known to have written no less than five 
hundred volumes, of which but two have come down 
to our day. Dionysius Halicarnassus wrote twenty 
books of -Roman Antiquities, of which but eleven are 
extant. Of the forty books of history composed by 
Polybius, but five now remain ; while of the same num- 



6 



ber by Diodorus Siculiis, but fifteen have reached our 
time. And who that has read the charming lives by 
Plutarch, has not regretted the entire loss of more 
than half of that beautiful collection." 

Such is the account which is given us of the destruc- 
tion of Roman literature alone. And what a loss w^ould 
it have been to the Continental nations of Europe, and 
the jurisprudence of every land, if the great code of 
the Emperor Justinian and his Pal^tects had not been 
discovered in the twelfth century. They had slept the 
sleep of ages, having disappeared in the latter part of 
the sixth century. For all that we now possess, we are 
largely indebted to the piety and devotion to learning, 
of that Church, which had superseded the worship and 
idolatry of the last Grreat Empire ; and had erected her 
religious establishments in so many parts of the earth, 
once governed by Rome. 

They had, not only in the ritual of their Church, pre- 
served the language of that mighty people in its purity, 
but their monasteries were the only secure depositories 
of the manuscripts and works of the learned, for some 
five centuries ; from the close of the sixth to the com- 
mencement of the eleventh century. For, during most 
of this long period, there were no public libraries out- 
side the Church ; and few private collections. But 
almost every Cathedral and many monasteries had 
their libraries ; in which, during the middle ages, so 
many works of classic literature that had survived the 
wreck and pillage of Rome, Avere saved. And not 
only did the Church save from destruction much of 
the learning and literature of the old world ; but to the 
life of seclusion, retirement, and patient industry of the 
monks of that period, we are indebted for the multi- 
plied copies of the most valuable manuscripts. Some 
of these libraries contained manv thousand volumes. 



The monastic library of Novalese in Piedmont, con- 
tained more than 6,000 volumes ; that of St. Benedict, 
sur-Loire in France, 5,000, and that of Spanheim, in 
Germany, had upwards of 2,000 volumes. These com- 
prised works of all ages and countries, and on all sub- 
jects. So that when the art of printing was invented by 
John Guttenberg, in the fifteenth century, there were 
manuscript copies of many of the most precious works 
of antiquity in almost every country of Europe, ready to 
be set up in type, and sent by the magic of the printing 
press, over the w^orld. 

To show how valuable and extensive are some of 
these collections, I will only mention the library of the 
Vatican at Rome, founded by Pope Hilary, in the sixth 
century. It contained in 1848, besides 400,000 printed 
volumes, 80,000 manuscripts, entirely matchless any- 
where else. Some of these manuscripts go back to the 
third century, and are therefore the earliest books 
known to exist. But the best and most reliable mate- 
rials for history, are more liable to perish, and be lost 
and forgotten, than these works even in manuscript, of 
the learned of any age. 

They are, the newspapers of the day : the letters of 
prominent men who take an active part in the public 
transactions, the pamphlets in which public affairs are 
discussed ; and the private journals of individuals. 
Pitkin, in his preface to the political and civil history 
of the United States, says : " The numerous publica- 
tions relating to individuals who acted a conspicuous 
part in the political scenes of this period, not only give 
the characters of the individuals themselves, but also 
furnish many important historical facts." He again 
remarks : " Much of the Revolutionary history of the 
United States, is only to be found in the private papers 
of those who w^ere principal actors during that period : 



8 



and whenever the letters of General Washington, and 
the papers left by Samuel Adams, John Adams and 
Thomas Jetferson, shall be given to the public, a great 
addition will be made to the stock of materials for 
American History." 

Thus wrote this historian in 1828. Since which period, 
these letters and papers have been published ; and we 
can now fully endorse the remark of Mr. Pitkin : 
Every one, we think, will arise from the perusal of 
the letters of Washington, with the conviction, that he 
had never before, truly known the difficulties and trials 
of that great struggle ; and had no full conception of 
the character and ability of its matchless leader. And 
what a flood of light do the letters and papers of John 
Adams, Samuel Adams and Jefferson, throw upon the 
great questions which agitated the American people of 
that day ; and which led finally to the separation of the 
colonies from the mother-country. If these letters and 
papers had been lost or destroyed, how much of valua- 
ble data for the history of that noble contest would 
have passed away, without the hope of ever having 
their place supplied. Of the proceedings of the Con- 
vention, which at a later period of our history as a 
nation, formed our present noble Constitution, how 
little was known until the publication of the notes of 
debate, taken by Mr. Madison, and purchased and 
published by Congress, in 1839. And even at this day, 
how much of our early colonial history can only be 
found in the musty and decaying records of our public 
offices. 

From an interesting report made in January last, to 
the Governor of this State, by Gen. Mayer, to whom 
the State Papers of Maryland had been submitted for 
examination and classification, I make the following 
extract : 



9 



" The ante-revolutionary papers now submitted to 
me are in a very fragmentary and decayed, as well as 
imperfect and unconnected condition. It is manifest, 
that large portions of them were either entirely lost, or 
so injured by mildew as to have been long since thrown 
away. Some of the bundles literally dropped to pieces 
in attempting to open them." And this might have 
been the condition of all our public piipers, if the Legis- 
lature had not, by resolution, in 1846, deposited with 
your Society for safe-keeping, several bound books and 
many valuable papers belonging to the archives of the 
State. A Trust which has been faithfully discharged 
by the Society to the present time. If, therefore, public 
documents and State papers, in the, archives of your 
Grovernment are so liable to injury and loss, what must 
be the inevitable fate of that most precious source of 
true and impartial history, the letters and papers of 
prominent men of any age, if left to the chances of 
private and family preservation. In our young, but 
rapidly developing country, where our people seem to 
be as migratory as the Phoenicians, of old, what chance 
for the preservation of such relics, unless we can gather 
them into some safe depositories like ours, where they 
will be guarded and j^i'eserved. To meet this want 
and supply this deficiency, Societies, such as this, have 
been established. 

Ours was incorporated on the 8th March, 1844; and 
its objects, as expressed in its charter, was " to collect, 
preserve, and diffuse information relating to the civil, 
natural, and literary history of the State of Maryland, 
and American history and biography, generally." Plow 
well and faithfully it has fullilled certain of these duties, 
let your library of historical Avorks, your very extensive 
collection of Colonial manuscripts, records and journals, 
and your gallaries attest. The catalogue of the manu- 



10 



scripts, maps, medals, j)ortraits, &c., of the Society, 
forms a book of forty-five pages, and the whole presents 
a collection most interesting to every Marylander; and 
which will remain a safe depository upon which future 
historians may rely in their search after truth. Of 
the original twenty-two incorporators of this Society, I 
am happy to know, that now, after the lapse of twenty- 
two years, ten still survive, many of whom are, as they 
ever have been, among the most honored and useful 
members of the Association. Their love for and devo- 
tion to the objects of our Society, seems to have experi- 
enced no abatement in the lapse of so many years. 
And now, with all our valuable collections ; with a 
library of over 10,000 volumes, of choice works, and 
quite full in the historical Department ; with our com- 
modious and beautiful rooms ; with nearly three hun- 
dred members, composed largely of the young and the 
active, (who may reasonably count upon many years of 
usefulness,) with ample resources for all the current 
expenses of the association ; and with a permanent fund 
for our publication and other expenses, the gift of one of 
nature's nobleman ; a bright future awaits this Society, 
if the spirit which led to its formation, and has hereto- 
fore directed its operations, shall continue to preside 
in its counsels. ^ 

And is thei^ not every thing in the circumstances 
attending the settlement and subsequent progress of 
our State, to cause us to love her history and her insti- 
tutions. Do not her sires in every trying hour of their 
■ country's history, challenge our admiration, and call 
upon us, not to permit the laurels which encircle their 
brows to fade, or their bright fame to be covered by 
the dust of time. The seeds of liberty were to be found 
in the Charter of our State. For it secured to those 
who might emigrate, an independent share in the legis- 



11 



lation of the province ; of which the statutes were to be 
established with the advice and approbation of the 
majority of the freemen or their deputies. 

Representative Government was thus indissolubly 
connected with the fundamental charter. Of Georsfe 
Calvert, who lirst projected the Colony, and to whom 
the Charter was to have been granted, Bancroft, in 
his history of the Colonies, says : " He deserves to be 
ranked among the most wise and benevolent lawyers of 
all ages. He was the lirst in the history of the Chris- 
tian World, to seek for religious security and peace by 
the practice of justice, and not by the exercise of power ; 
to plan the establishment of popular institutions with 
the enjoyment of liberty of conscience ; to advance the 
career of civilization by recognizing the equality of all 
christian sects." He died before he received his patent, 
but it was granted and confirmed to his son, Cecilius 
Calvert, who, succeeding to his father's fortune, carried 
into execution that father's intentions in reference to 
the colony he proposed to settle. The right of every 
colonist to be present either in person or by deputy, in 
the Legislature, and perfect religious freedom were the 
two memorable features in the character of the Mary- 
land institutions. Listen to the oath prescribed for 
her Governor : "I will not by myself or any other, 
directly or indirectly, molest any person professing to 
believe in Jesus Christ, for or in respect of religion." 
'Tis true ! that in after years, the religious intolerance 
which prevailed so long in the mother country, ex- 
tended to Maryland, and led here to the establishment 
of one sect, and provision for its support by law. The 
General Assembly, in 1692, passed an act establishing 
the Episcopal €hurch, and dividing every County into 
parishes, and laying taxes for the support of its minis- 
ters. And the usual history of all State religions was not 



12 



varied in this instance. Other sects and denominations 
were denied the liberty of free, public worship. But 
these disabling statutes were soon removed, except in 
the case of the Roman Catholics, who remained subject 
to their unjust provisions until th'D era of our revolu- 
tion. It is a sad comment upon our poor human 
nature, that, in a colony which was established by the 
members of this Church, and which groAv up to power 
and happiness under their mild goA^ernment, they 
alone, of all outside the pale of the Church of England, 
should have remained the only victims of religious in- 
tolerance for so many years. The Convention of this 
State which met in 1776, in the bill of rights, which 
prefaced the Constitution they framed, restored that 
religious liberty which had been the pride and honor 
of Maryland in its early history. Article 33, says : 
" That as it is the duty of every man to worship God in 
such manner as he thinks most acceptable to him, all 
persons professing the Christian religion are equally 
entitled to protection in their religious liberty ; where- 
fore, no person ought by any law to be molested in his 
person or estate on account of his religious persuasion 
or profession, or for his religious practice," &c. It was 
a great act as far as it went, and worthy of the great 
men who planted their Government upon such free 
and ennobling principles. But they left their Hebrew 
brethren still disfranchised. It was reserved for our 
day, to cancel this injustice. By the act of Assembly 
of 25th February, 1825, and its confirmation by the 
succeeding Legislature, all disabilities upon that por- 
tion of our fellow-citizens were removed. But although 
religious intolerance prevailed for a time in our State, 
there was something in the character and genius of its 
people, which deprived it of its worst features. JS'o 
fagot and stake, no dungeons, no gallows or whipping- 



13 



post, for any act of religious worship ever disgraced 
the soil of jMarylaiid. Descended from a member of 
that peaceful sect who found in this Colony, freedom to 
worship Grod after their simple form of devotion, I feel 
it to be no less a duty than it is a privilege, to refer on 
this occasion to that noble spirit of Christian toleration 
which, (with the exceptions I have mentioned,) has 
been the honor and the wise policy of our good State. 
And I commend it in all its full scope and meaning, 
to the men of this generation. The form of man's 
adoration of his Creator and the mode and manner of 
the worship he renders Him, should be ever held sacred 
and beyond the reach, not only of human legislation, 
but of every species of attack, persecution or censure. 
With an open Bible and a free press, which is our glori- 
ous inheritance, religious errors, like all others, may 
well be left to the domain of reason and argument. Xo 
form of religion has ever been destroyed by persecution. 
It has been no less eloquently than truly said, that the 
blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. If 
our early Colonial history be full of interest and satis- 
faction to every Marylander, that satisfaction and in- 
terest is deepened and increased when we contemplate 
the great part/^iey acted in our struggle for indepen- 
dence. At its commencement she was ranked by Burke, 
an impartial observer, with Virginia, as one of the lead- 
ing Colonies of the Continent. In his celebrated speech 
"on Conciliation with America," arguing against the 
policy and the injustice of the system of taxing the 
Colonies then pursued by the British Parliament, he 
said, "He must be grossly ignorant of iVmerica, Avho 
thinks that without falling into this confusion of all 
rules of equity and policy, you can restrain any single 
Colony, especially Virginia and Maryland, the central 
and most important of them all." And her sir«s in that 



14 



eventful struggle, did justice to the high character of 
their State ; so that at its close, Maryland still held the 
prominent position assigned her by the English orator 
and statesman. But of the leading part taken by the 
statesmen of Maryland, in that able discussion of the 
rights of the Colonies, that war of words and pamphlets, 
which preceded the clash of arms, how little is known 
to the men of our day. How many of this generation 
know anything of Daniel Dulaney, the younger, and 
of his great argument against the Stamp-Act. In his 
day, no orator or lawyer was more widely known than 
he. And now, his name seems to have passed from 
the memories of men ; known and remembered only 
by the members of his own profession who may have 
read his great opinions published in the tirst volume 
of our Maryland Reports ; opinions considered in his 
day of as high authority as judicial decisions ; and 
therefore properly appended to the reports of the 
earlier decisions of our Courts. And of the men from 
Maryland who, as her representatives, signed the Dec- 
laration of Independence, but little is known by the 
great body of their countrymen ; who to day, are reap- 
ing the benefits of their great and heroic act. Eighty- 
four pages in Sanderson's biography of the signers, and 
a brief memorial of Mr. Carroll, read some years since 
before this Society, by one of its members, is all that 
has ever been written of them to my knowledge. 
And what is now known of the able statesmen of this 
Colony, who in 1775 and 76, discussed the great and 
important questions of that day, with an ability not 
surpassed in any of the Colonies ; and who guided and 
directed this Colony from its state of vasalage and de- 
pendence, through the troubled waters of revolution, to 
its place as one of the independent States of the new 
Confederacy. In the several conventions which met at 



15 



Annapolis, at that eventful period we ever find promi- 
nent, the names of Chase, Tilghman, the two Carrolls, 
Paca, Plater and Goldsborough. They were the com- 
mittee elected by ballot to whom was committed the im- 
portant duty of preparing a bill of rights and form of 
government for the infant State. And that they and 
the convention did their duty well, is seen in the fact, 
that the form of government they then prepared, re- 
mained as the constitution of the State for sixty-two 
years. In the twenty-eight years that have elapsed 
since its repeal, we have had three constitutions form- 
ed, and it has been the opinion of many, that we have 
not improved on the w^ork of our fathers. They did 
their work well, and gave us liberty regulated by law ; 
the ample protection of individual rights by an impar- 
tial judiciary ; and the Legislatu^^nd paramount pow- 
er of the government, committed to a body who should 
meet annually to consult and act for the great interests 
of the State. The memory of such men we should 
treasure up ; and we should ever feel that it is a duty 
we owe them, for what they did, to make their names 
and lives familiar as household words. In the study 
of their thoughts and the contemplation of their deeds, 
we shall find ourselves escaping from the selfishness and 
partizanship of the day, in our efforts to attain that 
noble and unselfish patriotism which animated them, 
and glowed in all they said and did — we should return 
from the contemplation of their lives, purer and better 
men. They were with the advance in that great strug- 
gle for freedom and the rights of man. 

Before the declaration of July 4tli, 1776, made in 
Philadelphia, was known in Maryland ; and nearly a 
month before it was engraTettand signed, these men of 
Mar^dand and their colleagues in the convention, had 
i)ut forth their Declaration of Independence. On the 



16 



6tli of July, 1776, the convention caused to be entered 
on their journal a declaration which, after a recital of 
their wrongs, and an eloquent vindication of their rights, 
closes in the following language, "For the truth of these 
assertions we appeal to that Almighty Being, who is 
emphatically styled the searcher of hearts, and from 
whose omniscence nothing is concealed. Relying on 
His Divine protection and affiance, and trusting to the 
justice of our cause, we exhort and conjure every citizen 
to join cordially in defence of our common rights, and 
in maintenance of the freedom of this and her sister 
Colonies." And when the clash of arms came, the sons 
of Maryland answered this appeal ; and made good this 
declaration upon many a battle field of the revolution. 
iVnd from no subject of contemplation can we derive 
more gratification, than from a review of the heroic part 
taken by the men of our State, in that war which re- 
sulted, after long years of suffering and trial, in the in- 
dependence of the Colonies. 

In June, 1776, the Maryland Convention resolved, 
that that Province would furnish a flying camp of 
thirty-four hundred men to act in the middle depart- 
ment ; that is, from the Province of JYew York to 
Maryland ; to be divided into four battalions of nine 
companies each. The convention elected the officers of 
the battalions then about to be raised. And on July 
6tli, 1776, the day the convention made its declaration 
of independence, Col. Smallwood, who had been elected 
colonel, was ordered by the convention to proceed im- 
mediately with his battalion to Philadelphia, and put 
himself under the orders of Congress, and the Conti- 
nental officer commanding there. And also, that four 
independent companies from Talbot, Kent, Queen 
Anne's and St. Mary's counties, proceed immediately 
to the same destination and put themselves under the 



command of Col. Smallwoocl, subject to the further or- 
ders of Congress. iVnd so prompt was their obedience 
to this order, that on the 11th of the same month, six 
companies of the battalion, stationed at Annapolis, and 
three companies stationed at Baltimore Town, the whole 
under the command of Col. Smallwood, started on their 
march to Philadelphia. They reached the Continental 
army about the 1st of August, in time to act an heroic 
part on the bloody field of Long Island. 

In Lord Sterling's report to General Washington, 
of this disastArous battle, dated August 29th, 1776, he 
says, (after describing the position taken by the forces 
under his command,) "in this position we stood can- 
nonading each other, till near eleven o'clock, when I 
found that General Howe with the main body of the 
army was between me and our lines, and I saw that the 
only chance of escaping being all made prisoners, was 
to pass the Creek near the YelloW Mills ; and in order 
to render this more practicable, I found it absolutely 
necessary to attack a body of troops commanded by 
Lord Cornwallis, posted at the house near the Upper 
Mills. This I instantly did, with about half of Small- 
wood's regiment, first ordering all the other troops to 
make the best of their way through the creek." Look 
at that little band of five hundred young Marylanders 
on that disast^rous field, thus thrown forward as the 
forlorn hope, to hold in check the whole British army, 
numbering many thousands, to give time to their fellow- 
soldiers to escape. See them wheeling, and led on by 
their heroic leader, attacking the advancing British 
with unparalleled bravery. It^was a contest which 
could result to these young soldiers, only in death or a 
long captivity in the prison ship ; but they never fal- 
tered, and Lord Sterling says they made five or six 
several attacks on the British column. Washington's 
3 ^ 



1<S 



eagle eye was on tliem, and as they rushed on he ex- 
chiimed, "J/y (rod, what brave men must I this day lose.'''' 
They seemed likely to drive back the foremost ranks of 
the British ; and when forced to give way by overwhelm- 
ing numbers, they rallied and renewed the contest. 
They were surrounded but they still fought on ; and were 
nearly all cut to pieces, or taken prisoners. Nine only 
succeeded in regaining the American lines. I wish I had 
their names. They should be inscribed on the muster- 
roll of fame. These young martyrs of liberty should 
not sleep unwept and unhonored in their early graves. 
They should take their places in men's memories with 
Warren and the heroes who fell at Lexington and Con- 
cord. And time, which buries in oblivion so much of 
human achievement, should year after year, only fresh- 
en the laurels which cluster around their brows. 

The biographer of General Greene says of him ; that he 
Avas confined to his bed in the City of JNTew York, with 
a fever, within hearing of the sound of the battle on 
Long Island ; and that he was much disturbed when 
intelligence reached him of the reverses experienced b}^ 
the troops lately under his command ; but when in- 
formed of the terrible slaughter sustained by Col. 
Smallwood's regiment, his favorite Corps, composed for 
the most part of young men of family, and in a high 
state of discipline, he burst into tears ; declaring that 
superadded to the amount of private sorrow, which that 
disaster must occasion, the cause of freedom had ex- 
perienced in it, a loss which no time could repair. 
And at the battle of White Plains the shattered rem- 
nant of Smallwood's l^eroic regiment was again in the 
hottest of the fight, the bravest of the brave. 

The organization of this flying camp was so defective 
in many respects, that it w^as disbanded in Dec, 1776, 
and a brigade of regular troops to be attached to the 



19 



Continental army, was raised by Maryland. This brig- 
ade was composed largely of the men and officers of 
the flying camp, and was placed under the command 
of Smallwood, appointed a Brigadier-General early in 
1777. In the spring of this year, this brigade to be 
ever afterwards known and celebrated in history, as the 
'''■Marf/Iand lAne^^ joined the Continental army under 
the Commander-in-Chief in the Jerseys. They fought 
well at Brandywine and Germantown, though separated 
from their gallant leaders, Smallwood and Gist. Those 
two officers had been detailed by the Commander-in- 
Chief to proceed to Maryland ; and take charge of the 
militia, suddenly called out to join in the defence of 
Philadelphia. The Maryland Line then formed into 
two brigades, was placed under the command of Gen- 
eral Sullivan, and in those two bloody actions, gained 
for itself a character for discipline, valor and endur- 
ance, which was never tarnished in its subsequent 
history. It remained with the army under Washing- 
ton during the years 78 and 79, sharing in all its trials, 
privations and patient endurance. In the spring of 
1780, when it became necessary to send reinforcements 
to the South, the Maryland Line with the Delaware 
troops were selected. On the morning of the 17th of 
April, 1780, with the Baron De Kalb at their head, they 
left MorristoAvn in ]Vew Jersey, and commenced their 
long march to join the army of the South. They were 
soldiers worthy of such an heroic leader, and well did 
their after history justify the selection made by Wash- 
ington on this occasion. At Camden, Eutaw and Cow- 
pens, they gained for themselves imperishable renown ; 
and nobly sustained their early reputation for coolness 
in the hour of danger. On the disast^^ous field of Cam- 
den, after the flight of the militia, except one regiment 
from North Carolina, commanded by Col. Dixon, the 



20 



Maryland Line with this brave regiment of Dixon's, 
were left alone to oppose Cornw^allis' army, snrpassing 
them in numbers and already flushed with a certainty 
of triumph. Says the biographer of Greene, " this 
heroic remnant of the army under the command of 
De Kalb, Gist, Smallwood, Williams, Howard and 
Dixon, fought with intrepidity and desperate resolu- 
tion." They could not save the day ; but wTote their 
fealty and their devotion to liberty on that crimsoned 
field, Avith the heart's blood of the invader's legions. 
Their gallant leader fell, covered with wounds. Con- 
gress thought proper, after this reverse, to recall Gen- 
eral Gates, and General Greene Avas appointed to the 
Qommand of the Southern army. He assumed the 
duties of that important jiosition on the 3d of De- 
cember, 1780; and such was the universal confidence 
in him, and such his great abilities as a military 
leader, that he was soon able to resume the ofifensive, 
and early in January, 1781, he was able to dispatch 
Morgan with part of the Maryland Line, under Col. 
Howard, Col. Washington's dragoons and a few militia 
to take position on the British left. This movement 
led to the battle of the Cowpens, on the 17th January, 
in which the Marylanders with Washington's dragoons, 
bore an honorable part, and at a most critical period, 
by their gallantry, saved the day ; and gained for their 
country a decisive victory. On the celebrated and 
masterly retreat of General Greene through JN^ortli 
Carolina, the heroes of the Cowpens, now led by Otho 
Holland Williams, one of Maryland's bravest sons, 
protected the rear of the American army. Forgetful of 
themselves and bent exclusively on the preservation of 
those they were appointed to protect, these brave 
troops confronted difficulty and danger, and submitted 
to privation and hardship Avitli a perseA^erance and a 
self-devotedness rarely equalled in the records of Avar. 



21 



They never relaxed their vigihince until Greene had 
placed the river Dan between his exhausted troops and 
the advancing British. When Greene again entered 
South Carolina, the Maryland Line was with him, and 
participated, on the 8th September, in the bloody battle 
at the Eutaw Springs, which closed in a glorious triumph 
for the American arms. General Greene, in his des- 
patch to Congress, describing the crisis of the engage- 
ment, says : " In this stage of the action, the Virginians 
under Lieut. Col. Campbell, and the Marylanders under 
Col. Williams, were led on to a brisk charge, with trailed 
arms, through a heavy cannonade and a shower of mus- 
ket-balls. TsTothino- could exceed the gallantrv and 
firmness of both officers and men upon this occasion. 
They preserved their order, and pressed on with such 
unshaken resolution that they bore down all before 
them. The enemy w^ere routed on all quarters." Thus 
did the sons of Maryland answer the appeal of the Con- 
vention of their State, and nobly sustain Maryland's 
declaration of independence of the 6th July, 1776. Of 
their gallant leaders how little is known by the men of 
this generation ! Two brief memoirs by members of 
this society, one of the Baron De Ivalb, and the other 
of Gen. Williams, and two brief sketches of Williams 
and Howard in the National Portrait Gallery, are all 
that have been specially done, to my knowledge, to 
transmit the memory of their heroic lives to posterity. 
Who knows anything now of Gen. Gist, or Col. Gunby, 
or Col. Josias Carvill Hall ? And how little is compara- 
tively known by the men who now crowd our streets of 
the great part taken by the brave and gallant Howard 
in the war for our independence. Massachusetts has 
been more just to the memory of her illustrious dead; 
she does not permit their names to be forgotten, or their 
sacrifices for their country to pass from the memories of 



-)9 



men. Our libraries contain many biographies of lier 
distinguished men, distinguished either in the camp, at 
the bar, or in the senate chamber. Her sons of the 
present day have been in this particuhir just to their 
fathers and true to themselves. They have thus placed 
before the coming generations the bright examples of 
the lives of her illustrious men. Through these biogra- 
phies they live again, and ever teach their countrymen 
the lessons of devoted and self-denying patriotism. Let 
the young men of Maryland, members of this society, 
from the ample provisions laid up in our archives, be 
as true and as just to the great dead of our own State. 
There is no field of labor from which they will return 
with a richer reward, or with more purified and elcA^ated 
feelings ; there is no surer way of re-kindling the fires 
of patriotism in our own bosoms, than by the study of 
the lives and sacrifices of the great statesmen and heroes 
of the past generation. Let memory recall the great 
facts attending our struggle for liberty, and the sacrifices 
which our fathers so cheerfully made in that day of 
trial ; and it will do more to strengthen our love for our 
country than any contemplation of its present greatness ; 
for it is ever true that historic memories fire a people 
with valor and patriotism. If our love for its wise and 
and noble constitution is growing faint and feeble, let 
us visit Marshfield, and recall the eloquent and un- 
answerable defence of the Constitution bv its <2,-reat 
expounder. One of the sadest signs of the times is the 
fact, that for the last twenty years the old-fashioned 
celebrations of the 4th of July, by orations upon the 
acts and men of the revolution, seems to be no longer 
the fashion. A late writer upon the " Decline of the 
Roman Republic," says : " All political systems contain 
within them the principles of their own death ; and 
political progress, as we call it, is only the slower road 



23 



to that end to wliicli all human institutions, so far as we 
have had experience, must come at last." I would not 
take so gloomy view of human institutions. I would 
be more inclined to agree with -Sir James Mackintosh, 
" Experience may, and I hope does, justify us in expect- 
ing that the whole course of human affairs is towards a 
better state." But let us remember, that when a nation 
forgets her illustrious dead, the shadows of decay are 
already falling on her. 

When the war of our revolution broke out in 1776, it 
found a young man living in the immediate vicinity of 
Baltimore Town, on his oAvn patrimonial estate, with 
everything around him that wealth and high social 
position could give to render his home attractive. But 
he put the joys of home and the sweet intercourse of 
social life aside. He turned his back upon them all for 
a season ; tor above them all he heard, and answered, 
the cry of his suffering country. When Maryland first 
called her sons to her standard, and formed her fl^^ing 
camps, he left his home, to be a dweller there no more 
until the independence of his country should be recog- 
nized, and a position gained for her amid the nations of 
the earth. He was then in the twenty-fourth year of 
his age, and the Convention discerning his merit at that 
early day, appointed him a Captain in the regiment 
placed under the command of Col. Josias Carvill Hall. 
This regiment being disbanded, for the reason I have 
heretofore stated, after a few months' service, and the 
seven regiments having been raised and organized by 
Maryland to be attached to the Continental army, the 
young Capt^un was appointed ]Major in the fourth regi- 
ment, under his former commander Col. Hall. 

Entering the room in which the business meetings of 
this society are held, you will see his portrait, imme- 
diately over the full length likeness of Lord Baltimore. 



24 



His commission is dated the 10th of April, 1777. On 
the 1st of June, 1779, he was appointed Lieut. Col. of 
the Fifth, and after the battle of Hobkick's hill, he suc- 
ceeded to the command of the Second regiment, upon 
the death of Lieut. Col. Ford. Every Marylander Avho 
studies the history of the revolution, will feel proud 
and grateful that Col. John Eager Howard belonged to 
our State. He will rejoice that in her day of trial, 
she had such a son to defend her cause, and to lead 
her regiments to battle, and so often to victory. The 
diyision to which his regiment was attached at Grer- 
mantown, behaved with great bravery ,on that bloody 
field ; and around and in front of the large mansion, 
known as Chew's house, again and again repulsed 
the enemy. The house was on that day garrisoned 
by a British regiment; and was of course the sub- 
ject of frequent attacks by the Americans, until the 
thick fog and smoke hid everything from view. And 
here I would mention one of those romances in real life 
which history sometimes presents to our view. This 
old mansion 1)efore which our young officer cheered on 
his unflinching soldiers to the thickest of the fight, and 
from whose windows the bullets flew so fast that periled 
his life at every moment, was to become to him in after 
years most dear. When the purple tide of war had 
swept b}^, and peace and independence had blessed the 
land, our young soldier was to seek and find in it his 
future bride and the mother of his children. 

In the battles of White Plains, Monmouth and Grer- 
mantown, he displayed that unflinching courage which 
ever afterwards so distinguished him. He went South 
with the Maryland Line, and at Camden, Cowpens and 
Eutaw Springs, he exhibited a gallantry and firmness 
which no danger could shake, and a decision of charac- 
ter and clearness of judgment which no complications 



25 



of battle or siiddoii emergencies could embarrass, lie 
was one of those heroic spirits in whom General Greene 
reposed his hopes, in his noble determination to re- 
cover the South or perish in the attempt. In Howard 
he found a spirit worthy of his friendship and conii- 
dence, and he gave them to him in no stinted measure. 

The battle of Eutaw Springs was fought on the 8th of 
September, 1781. Greene, writing to a friend in Mary- 
land, in November of the same year, says : " This will 
be handed to you by Col. Howard, as good an officer as 
the world affords. He has great ability, and the best 
disposition to promote the service. My own obligations 
to him are great, the public's still more so ; he deseryes 
a statute of gold, no less than Roman and Grecian 
heroes. He has been wounded, but has haj^pily recov- 
ered." He gained his brightest laurel at the battle of 
the Cowpens, where, assuming to himself the responsi- 
bility of the act, he wheeled his regiment and charged 
u2:>on the advancing British column, superior to. his own 
command, and at the point of the bayonet swept them 
from the field. And this is the first time in the history 
of the war, in which the bayonet was successfully used 
by the American troops. And on the red field of Cam- 
den, when the militia of Virginia and jSTorth Carolina 
had given way, and Gates had given up all for lost, 
and had left the field. Col. Howard distinguished him- 
self with those who stood their ground and prevented 
the utter destruction of the American forces. 

After the close of the war, to whose successful issue 
his services in the field had so largely contributed, he 
returned to his home near our city, to enjoy the repose 
and quiet of domestic life. But like his beloved Com- 
mander-in-chief, those great qualities of ardent patriot- 
ism, clearness of judgment, and firmness of purpose 
which had so distinguished him in the field, were no 
4 



2(^ 



less necessary to the civil government just starting upon 
its untrod path, and Col. Howard was not permitted to 
remain long in the seclusion of his own home. In 
November, 1788, he was elected Governor of this State, 
succeeding his old commander Gen. Smallwood. And 
he was re-elected for the two following years ; sub- 
sequently, in the autumn of 1796, he was elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and remained a member of 
that body until the 4th of March, 1803. In Tv'ovember, 
1795, he was offered by Washington the office of Secre- 
tary of AA^ar, which he declined on account of delicate 
health ; and two years afterwards, when in view of a 
threatened war with France, Washington was called 
on again to lead the armies of his country, he named 
Col. Howard for the office of Brigadier-General. He 
lived to a good old age, and was permitted to see the 
full fruition of all his hopes for his beloved country. 
He lived to see the small town of Baltimore, of less 
than ten thousand souls at the close of the w^ar, expand 
to a city of seventy-two thousand inhabitants, and be- 
ginning rapidly to encroach upon the stately park 
wdiich surrounded his paternal mansion. He died on 
the 12th of October, 1827, in the 76th year of his age, 
respected and reverenced by the men of his native 
State, who had looked up to him as a connecting link 
• between the two centuries. I recollect, as a student of 
law, marching with the long and imposing civil and 
military procession which followed his remains from his 
residence at Belvidere, to the Episcopal Cemetery, in 
the ^^>stern part of the city. When the news of his 
death reached the far off South, the people of the State, 
on wdiose soil many of his heroic actions during the war 
had been performed, shared the general grief at his loss. 
When the Legislature of South Carolina met in the 
winter following, it passed unanimously, the following 



21 



beautiful tribute to his memory. " It becomes a grate- 
ful people to cherish and perpetuate the memory of the 
brave and good ; to remember with gratitude their 
services, and to protit by their bright example. 

"The heroic band of the revolution who fought that 
we might enjoy peace, and conquered that we might in- 
herit freedom, deserve the highest place in the grateful 
affections of a free people. 

"Among the master-spirits who battled for independ- 
ence, we are to remember with veneration the late 
patriotic and venerable Col. Jno. Eager Howard. His 
illustrious name is to be found in the history of his 
country's sufferings and the annals of his country's 
triumphs ; in the day of j^eril and of doubt, when the 
result Avas hid in clouds, when the rocking of the battle- 
ments was heard from Bunker Hill to the plains of 
Savannah, when danger was everywhere, and when 
death mingled in the conflict of the warrior, Howard 
still clave to the fortunes of the struggling Republic. 
()f all the characters which the days of trial brought 
forth, few are equal, none more extraordinary. He was 
his country's common friend, and his country owes him 
one common inextinguishable debt of gratitude. South 
Carolina, with whose history his name is identified, is 
proud to acknowledge the obligation." And then, after 
a brief recital of his achievements in the battles of the 
South, it closed with the following resolutions : 

^''Resolved, therefore, That it was with feelings of pro- 
found sorrow and regret that South Carolina received 
the melancholv intellio-ence of the death of Col. Jno. 
Eager Howard of Maryland ; 

" Resolved, That the State of South Carolina can never 
forget the distinguished services of the deceased ; 

'■'Resolved, That the Governor be requested to trans- 
mit a copy of these proceedings to the (lovernor of 
Marvland, and to the familv of Col. Howard." 



28 



These resolutions present the spectacle of one State 
sharing in and sympathizing with the sorrows of a sister 
State at the death of a distinguished son, whose loss both 
so deeply regretted. And to show in what estimation 
he was held by the country at large, the President of 
the United States (Mr. John Quincy Adams) attended 
his funeral. 

I have given this brief sketch of Col. Howard to show 
to the younger members of this Society that we have on 
the roll of Maryland's distinguished sons, many whose 
lives and characters well deserve their study, and the 
efforts of their young and vigorous pens. In no way is 
history taught or learned so well as by biography ; and 
he Avho prepares himself to write of the life and char- 
acter of any of earth's great benefactors, wdll, when his 
work is done, find himself with a thorough knowledge 
of the general history of the country or period in which 
his subject has lived and acted. 

I have said nothing upon this occasion of the great 
battles and contests of our late deeply to be regretted 
civil war. I would not tread upon the ashes of the late 
conflagration. The time to write the history of the 
Great liebellion has not yet come. All we should do is, 
to collect and preserve the data and material from 
which some future Prescott, when passion shall subside, 
and the causes which led to it shall be removed from 
the field of politics, may give the world a clear and im- 
partial history, in which he shall " nothing extenuate 
nor set aught down in malice." All that I would say 
is, that wherever in this contest which so often divided 
the members of the same household, the sons of Mary- 
land were found, thev exhibited the same heroic couras-e 
Avhich the history of our country shows, their fathers 
possessed in the days of the revolution. And all I 
think will now rejoice, that Maryland at its close stands 



2U 



where she stood at its commencement, one of the central 
states of a great confederacy. 

Maryhmd, hind of my birth, my father's hind ; may 
thy prosperity be as endnring as thy granite hills ; and 
thy justice and thy actions be ever as clear and un- 
sullied as the streams which leap from thy mountain 
sides. May thy civil and religious freedom know no 
abatement in all the ages that shall come ; but may'st 
thou ever remain, " the land of the free,'' as thou hast 
ever been ^^the home of the brave.'' 






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